LG V40 ThinQ review

GSMArena team,
16 November 2018.

User interface

The V40 ThinQ boots Android 8.1 Oreo with LG's in-house launcher on top. Sadly, gone are the days of the V20 which was at the time the first phone to launch on Nougat. Android P will certainly come, sooner or later.

Always-on display is present on the V40, naturally, and you can have one out six designs in total, notifications from all apps can be shown, and you can also set up a period when the feature will be turned off - pretty much the usual AOD stuff.

Always on display

LG likes to call the area around the notch New Second Screen and claims this is an enhanced version of the second screen from the V10 and V20. No matter the name, the notch is there and it splits the top of the screen. It fits the usual stuff - notification icons, status items, the clock and network bars. Unlike most other makers, LG gives you the option to embrace the notch and assign custom colors to the horns and pick one of two different corner radiuses.

New Second Screen

The V40 ThinQ's lockscreen is virtually identical to the G7's. You get two shortcuts in the bottom corners by default - to the dialer and the camera. You can, however, have up to 5 shortcuts there, to apps of your own choosing.

You have multiple options for a secure unlock - the usual PIN, pattern or password, fingerprint (the sensor is always on), face (fast but less secure, or slow but more secure), and LG's own Knock Code. The nice thing is that these work simultaneously, and the phone will unlock with the first successful option.

Lockscreen • ...and security settings

Past the lockscreen is the homescreen which lacks an app drawer by default. You can, however, switch back to the stock Android two-tiered arrangement.

Smart Bulletin is your leftmost pane with various widgets to help you organize your day.

The task switcher has a 'clear all' button, plus a pin you can tap on each app if you want it to remain after you've killed the rest. That's different from screen pinning (needs to be enabled in settings), where you can pin a single app to stay on the display regardless of the user's attempts to tap away from it.

There's, of course, split-screen multitasking. In split screen view, the Home button shows your homescreen but does not dismiss the apps - the app switcher button shows the split screen icon and double tapping it brings back the two. This is great since normally you can only pick apps from the app switcher rolodex for split screen use, but in this state, any app you launch from the homescreen goes straight into split screen mode.

QSlide, LG's floating app implementation, is still available in some places - the Phone, and the video player. But those are the exception rather than the rule.

The system wide search (swipe down anywhere on your homescreen) sifts through your apps, contacts, and settings for the search term you input. You can specify where exactly it looks into, so it doesn't have access to sensitive apps like instant messengers (or whatever it is that you prefer to stay private).

The notification area is nothing out of the ordinary and features a single row of quick toggles plus a brightness slider on the furst pull, more toggles on the second.

The notification area • Quick toggles galore

Finally, there is a dedicated hardware key to summon the Google Assistant - single press does that for you. A double press, on the other hand, will launch Google Lens.

Synthetic benchmarks

The V40 ThinQ is powered by the Snapdragon 845 chipset like every other high-end phone from a company that doesn't make their own chips. It's got 6GB of RAM and comes in storage tiers of 64GB and 128GB, though the latter may not be available everywhere.

We ran the usual set of benchmarks, and the numbers don't really bring major surprises. The single-core CPU testing in GeekBench returned results typical of Snapdragon 845 phones, while the Mate 20 Pro with its brand new Kirin 980 and the Galaxy S9+ in Exynos trim put out much higher scores.

GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S9+3771

Huawei Mate 20 Pro3291

Sony Xperia XZ32486

HTC U12+2456

Xiaomi Pocophone F12438

Xiaomi Mi 82431

OnePlus 6T2431

LG V40 ThinQ2408

LG G7 ThinQ2395

Google Pixel 3 XL2363

Oppo Find X2322

Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)2199

There's a tiny bit more variation between the Snapdragons under multi-core loads, but all of them are plenty powerful, V40 included.

GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

Huawei Mate 20 Pro9712

Xiaomi Pocophone F19003

HTC U12+9001

OnePlus 6T8977

Samsung Galaxy S9+8883

LG G7 ThinQ8865

Sony Xperia XZ38607

LG V40 ThinQ8568

Xiaomi Mi 88494

Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)8349

Google Pixel 3 XL8088

Oppo Find X8018

In Antutu, we didn't get quite as many points out of the V40 as we got from the competition - only the Exynos Galaxy S9+ and the Mi 8 are behind. The Pixel 3XL and LG's own G7 are marginally ahead of the V40, while the OnePlus 6T leads the way.

AnTuTu 7

Higher is better

OnePlus 6T293994

Oppo Find X291218

Sony Xperia XZ3284555

Huawei Mate 20 Pro273913

Xiaomi Pocophone F1265314

Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)264044

HTC U12+263696

LG G7 ThinQ259393

Google Pixel 3 XL258244

LG V40 ThinQ254304

Samsung Galaxy S9+246660

Xiaomi Mi 8217298

The V40 has the raw power to ace offscreen graphics benchmarks, but framerates predictably take a hit in onscreen testing. Te more pixels of the QHD display mean FullHD rivals like the Find X and OnePlus 6T will post better numbers, but the V40 is still ahead of the Pixel 3 XL and the Exynos Galaxy.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

LG V40 ThinQ83

Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)83

OnePlus 6T83

Huawei Mate 20 Pro83

Oppo Find X82

Xiaomi Pocophone F182

Sony Xperia XZ376

Samsung Galaxy S9+74

Google Pixel 3 XL72

LG G7 ThinQ66

HTC U12+64

Xiaomi Mi 864

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

Xiaomi Pocophone F159

OnePlus 6T59

Oppo Find X58

Xiaomi Mi 857

Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)51

HTC U12+50

Huawei Mate 20 Pro50

LG V40 ThinQ46

Sony Xperia XZ345

Samsung Galaxy S9+45

LG G7 ThinQ43

Google Pixel 3 XL39

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)61

HTC U12+60

Oppo Find X60

Xiaomi Pocophone F160

OnePlus 6T60

LG G7 ThinQ57

LG V40 ThinQ56

Sony Xperia XZ356

Xiaomi Mi 853

Huawei Mate 20 Pro53

Samsung Galaxy S9+47

Google Pixel 3 XL44

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

Xiaomi Pocophone F153

OnePlus 6T53

Xiaomi Mi 850

Oppo Find X50

Samsung Galaxy S9+ (Snapdragon)34

HTC U12+33

Sony Xperia XZ331

LG G7 ThinQ30

LG V40 ThinQ29

Huawei Mate 20 Pro27

Google Pixel 3 XL24

Samsung Galaxy S9+24

All in all, a predictably great showing from the V40 in the performance department, with no significant heat build up or major thermal throttling.

The LG V40 in my opinion is the best device LG has produced since the V20, which I also own. There are many deals to be found. I purchased a new in the box one from a local seller on Offer Up for a deep discount. The video/audio set up is second to n...